FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 11, 2015
BULL RIVER SHOOTERS
BATTLE AT THE BORDER
A SUMMER OF SHOOTING
College basketball tournament coming to Cranbrook
See LOCAL NEWS page 2
See SPORTS page 9
THE BULLETIN PROUDLY SERVING KIMBERLEY AND AREA SINCE 1932 | Vol. 83, Issue 174 | www.dailybulletin.ca
www.facebook.com/ TownsmanBulletin Like Us and keep up to date with all the breaking East Kootenay news.
TownsmanBulletin Follow Us
@kbulletin
1
$ 10 INCLUDES G.S.T.
COs ‘hard release’ three grizzlies ARNE PETRYSHEN
With the many bear sightings and the frequency of those encounters that turn nasty for the bears involved, it may be nice to hear a story with a happier ending. Jared Connatty, conservation officer, said in the case of a mature sow and her cubs, the results were positive for all involved. On Aug. 31, Conservation Officers trapped the three bears on a large ranch property just outside of Hosmer, near Fernie. Connatty noted there were ongoing occurrences involving the bears, though nothing too serious. The bear family — a smaller sow with two cubs, each around a year and a half old — had been sighted by people in the area foraging on the natural food sources. “Once in a while they would slip in and grab the odd chicken, kill a chicken — that kind of thing,” he said. “We
PHOTO COURTESY JARED CONNATTY
Conservation Officers managed to capture a family of three grizzly bears — a sow and two cubs — in the Hosmer area and then successfully released them using hard release tactics so that the bears will hopefully avoid the area in the future. Pictured above a male cub is stuck in a trap. Next to him the sow is caught in blue culvert trap. ended up deploying some trapping efforts to see if we could catch them and ended up catching all of them.” Connatty said the circumstances are always different. He compared this to the bear eutha-
nized recently in the Jimsmith area. That one was a young male grizzly specifically targeting chicken coops and getting into conflict that way. “Whereas this one kind of still showed
some natural, normal behaviours,” he said. “We collared the sow and ear pegged both of the young ones there and did what is called a hard release on site.” See RELEASE, page 4
BC Liberals “set up” Canal Flats mill closure with 2003 policy change, Macdonald says
200 mills closed since “appurtenancy” rules changed, MLA says C AROLYN GR ANT TRE VOR CR AWLEY
The news that Canfor is permanently closing their Canal Flats operation indicates just how little the BC Liberals care about forest dependent communities, says Columbia River Revel-
Columbia River Revelstoke MLA Norm Macdonald stoke MLA Norm Macdonald.
Macdonald points to the Canal Flats closure as one in a long line of mill closures since the BC Liberal government changed the rules around “appurtenancy obligation” in the Forest Act agreement. “The way it was set up prior to 2003 by the Social Credit government was that wood from an area needed to be milled in that area,” Macdonald said. “The BC Liberals removed that obligation in 2003 and since then there has been a consol-
idation of milling. It makes sense for the companies of course, but for rural BC it leads to removal of industry. 200 mills have closed since the BC Liberals changed that policy.” Macdonald will be in Canal Flats on Monday to meet with Mayor Ute Juras and discuss the impact on her community.
See MILL, page 4
ROD WILSON PHOTO
Drummer Tony Ferraro of the Gabriel Palatchi Trio performs Live at Studio 64 last Saturday night, party of the Fall Jazz and Blues Series. See concert review, page 5. Next up is Tyler Hornby, who will be performing with his B3 Trio at Studio 64 in Kimberley on Saturday, September 26.
Kimberley would welcome another solar farm near Cranbrook C AROLYN GR ANT Bulletin Editor
Mayor Don McCormick says that Kimberley would welcome another solar farm in the area. As reported in the Daily Bulletin on Tuesday, September 8, a proposal has been referred to the Regional District of East Kootenay in late August from the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Opera-
tions, involving a crown land application for an investigative license to assess the potential for a solar farm. The application covers 300 hectares and is roughly located beyond a gravel pit adjacent to the St. Mary’s River in-between Cranbrook and Fort Steele. The vision is to have three separate areas capturing sunlight on the property. Please see SOLAR, page 3